Depending on your skill level, you may be able to work a deal with your employer to work reduced hours, or to disappear for a few months of each year -- basical

Depending on your skill level, you may be able to work a deal with your employer to work reduced hours, or to disappear for a few months of each year -- basically, unpaid leave, but as a regular thing. I worked reduced hours for quite a while after my second child was born; and we have an developer on the team who disappears for 3 months a year to go be a theater director. There's basically quite a lot of flexibility that's perfectly possible, and not even costly for the employer, but it's not habitually permitted. I suspect in a lot of companies you might be able to get a lot more leeway just by asking for it, though. See if you can get away with only working a half-day Friday, in exchange for an extra hour the other 4 days, for example.